FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WEST PULLMAN - PAGE 2

Arson investigators were at the scene of an early morning fire in the West Pullman neighborhood that appeared to have been intentionally set, police said. No one was injured in the fire at the home in the 12100 block of South Wallace Street, authorities said. Fire crews were on the scene of the fire at about 2 a.m. While the back porch fire was quickly extinguished, Calumet District police said the blaze appeared to have been set with gasoline. Police Bomb and Arson detectives, along with investigators with the Fire Department's office of fire investigations, were called to the scene, authorities said.

Chicago police are investigating the death of a 24-year-old man whose decomposed body was found this morning inside a West Pullman apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. Police were called to the Far South Side apartment in the 200 block of East 121st Place around 10:15 a.m. and found the victim in one room and a gun in another room, authorities said. An official cause of death won't be determined until Saturday when an autopsy is scheduled to be performed. But officials believe the gunshot may have been self-inflicted.

A 17-year-old boy shot in the head Monday died early Friday morning, according to a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office. Marqwell Seabron, of the 100 block of 117th Street, was shot about three blocks from his West Pullman home. He was pronounced dead at 12:35 a.m., the spokeswoman said. Police said that the boy was walking with a group of males in the 11800 block of South Perry Avenue at about 9:22 p.m. Monday when a gunman inside a red car opened fire on the group.

Chicago police issued a community alert today after a 21-year-old woman was sexually assaulted in the West Pullman neighborhood earlier this month. The assault occurred on Sept. 4 at 4:15 a.m. as the woman was asleep in a relatives vehicle which was in a parking lot in the 11600 block of South Halsted Avenue, police said. A man entered the vehicle on the driver's side and drove the vehicle to the 12000 block of South Morgan Street where he sexually assaulted her at gunpoint, police said.

A 3-year-old boy was shot in the arm as he was walking with his mother and father Saturday evening in the West Pullman neighborhood, police said. The shooting happened at about 11:30 p.m. as the boy was walking with his parents on the 700 block of West 120th Street, said Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro. The parents and the boy were on the sidewalk when a male walked up to them and began firing, said Alfaro. The boy was shot in the arm and was the only one injured, Alfaro said.

Murder charges have been filed against a 22-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a man during an armed robbery in April on the West Side, police said. Shannon Williams, 22, was charged with murder and three counts of robbery, according to a statement from police News Affairs. Williams, of the of the 12200 block of South Harvard Avenue in the West Pullman neighborhood, is also wanted on a warrant. Williams was identified as the offender who fatally shot Trevolus Pickett, 20, during an armed robbery in the 5200 block of West Congress Parkway on April 18, at approximately 11:15 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Gov. Pat Quinn stood inside the auditorium of a sprawling new Salvation Army community center that officially opened in West Pullman Saturday and put into perspective the meaning of a new swimming pool, performing arts center, soccer field and other recreational outlets in the Far South Side neighborhood. “This used to be, believe it or not, kind of a dumping area,” Quinn told a crowd of residents, politicians and other dignitaries. The 33-acre site at 1250 W. 119th St. was desolate just a few years ago, a visual marker of the long decline of a once-vibrant community that by the 1980s had dwindled into an afterthought 19 miles from Chicago's downtown area.

An 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old man were fatally shot and two other people were wounded tonight and this morning in shootings on the Far South and West Sides, authorities said. Earl Cunningham, 18, of the 12200 block of South Union Avenue, was pronounced dead at 10 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and he suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office. Cunningham was initially taken to Christ with an 18-year-old woman who was also shot and both were said to be in "very critical" condition, according to police and the Chicago Fire Department.

Quiltavia Patterson was an aspiring rapper who left Chicago months ago to try to remove her 3-year-old twins from harm's way. Jermaine Carter was a well-known tattoo artist in the West Pullman neighborhood who many endearingly called "Face," friends said. Early Tuesday morning, both Patterson and Carter were near Eggleston Avenue and 120th Street when a dark-colored car drove by and someone inside opened fire, police said. Patterson, 25, was declared dead at the scene. Carter, 38, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.